"The King of Pop would have suffered a cardiac arrest, but the official cause of death will not be known until an autopsy," said his brother Jermaine Jackson during a brief press conference charged with emotion, a few hours after sudden death of Michael Jackson.
The autopsy will be held today and results should be known Friday afternoon, according to the Institute of Forensic Medicine of the County of Los Angeles. The father of the star has confirmed that his son had a heart attack.
Rescuers have tried for over an hour to revive the star after she collapsed at his home in Holmby Hills, an affluent area of northwest Los Angeles where she rented a mansion in January. The singer stopped breathing when paramedics firefighters of the city have responded to the call made to 911 emergency number at 12:21 (21h21 French time). They had a CPR and transported the hospital of Ronald Reagan UCLA (University of California at Los Angeles), a few kilometers away.
"Mr. Jackson was unconscious when he was admitted to the hospital and he was pronounced dead at 14H26 (23h26, heure française), "said CNN spokesperson of the Institute of Forensic Medicine of the County of Los Angeles, Lt. Fred Corral. Shortly before 19h, the body wrapped in a white shroud was taken to the morgue in Los Angeles, transfer filmed live by local television from helicopters.
Too much medicine?
A woman cries in front of the hospital in Los Angeles. Photo credits: AP A few hours after his death, Brian Oxman, a lawyer with the Jackson family, said the event "is not something unexpected (...) because of medication he was taking" to get back in shape for a heavy concert schedule planned this summer in London.
According to Brian Oxman, interviewed on CNN, "people around him allowed him to have access (to drugs). If you think that there were abuses in the case of Anna Nicole Smith, it was nothing next to what we saw in the life of Michael Jackson, "he added.
"I do not know the extent of medication he was taking but what I heard is that the family was very important," he added. For its part, Tarak Ben Ammar, a friend and former manager of Michael Jackson did not hesitate, on Europe 1, has described as "criminals" and "quacks" doctors have cared for throughout his career. "He could not sleep so he took sleeping pills. He was a hypochondriac and you never knew if he was really sick because it was surrounded by medical charlatans who lived in this disease, which charged him thousands and thousands of dollars of medicines, vitamins ...». According to him, Michael Jackson died of "a heart attack because he took all sorts of drugs but he did" never seen the drugs. "
The Los Angeles Police Department opened an investigation into the death of Michael Jackson, during which his family and friends will be interviewed.
